The course website and blog for the Fall 2016 instance of Penn State's SC200 course

Why do we trust attractive people more than others?

Isn’t it weird how society sometimes sympathizes for a criminal when they’re better looking than others? Why are we more inclined to trust someone if we find them attractive? I like to think I don’t judge people by looks but sometimes I find myself thinking differently even if I don’t actually believe it.

In this article it talks about how attractive people in the public are trusted much more highly than others. They’re held at a higher standard than regular citizens and with that comes responsibility as well. If they disappoint and turn out to be not as trusting as everyone assumed then they let everyone down that much more. Finding people who are attractive more trustworthy is apparently an inherent trait that people have and it might be due to the fact that we think if you’re attractive you are better off socially and financially so it makes that person more appealing towards us.

Conversely, in a separate article it argues that now it is more “average” looking people who are trusted higher than above average attractive people. The article explains how the more familiar a face looks to you the more likely you are to trust it. This mainly applies to culture references, because if you are surrounded by your own culture and people who have similar resemblances you are likely to trust them more. In return, when people find someone very attractive they don’t take into account their trustworthiness because they don’t view them to be on the same “level” as them.

Whether you choose to believe either articles research, there’s no denying people do trust more attractive people, take Ted Bundy for example. He was a violent serial killer of women in the 1980’s. His main way at attracting his victims was to just go up and talk to lone women on the street asking for their help, and because he was so attractive and nice, the women would trust him and comply. Bundy was aware of his affect on women with his good looks and used it to his advantage. This is why everyone has to be aware of “stranger danger” no matter how attractive and trustworthy you might find someone.

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4 thoughts on “Why do we trust attractive people more than others?”

This is an extremely interesting topic, which also gets brownie points because you used a Zoolander picture. har-har. But I did a psychology experiment with facial recognition and I had to associate a face with a word usually happy or sad, trustworthy, etc. Which brings me to my point. I think I have an unconscious bias toward people who are more attractive because I associated the most attractive people as trustworthy and happy. I feel extremely bad for that but I wonder if it’s because society told us to? Maybe it’s because attractiveness is just a facade spell that some people have and they can either use it to their advantage or it doesn’t matter at all.

I like the way you had two sources arguing different sides. Each had logic and reasoning to them, and they are very hard to deny. As well, I liked how you used Ted Bundy as an example for your reasoning of why we trust attractive people. It was a perfect example in explaining how us humans naturally trust more attractive humans and things for that matter. I also realize that I will do this from time to time in public settings, like if I am at a barber shop, I will go to the better looking individual to cut my hair.

It is strange how all of us make splint-second judgements on people based on looks, even if we try not to. When I was young, I watch the TV show “What Not To Wear”. The stars of the show explained to the participant that the way they dress will help them in every aspect of their lives including intimate relationships, careers, and personal self-esteem.

This was interesting to read, seeing as we can be easily influenced by how a person looks. Jeremy Meeks is a perfect example of this. This article explains how this felon revolutionized the world (http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/hot-felon-jeremy-meeks-releases-8196635). Looking at him, besides being in complete awe, the first thing that popped into my mind was “Well, whatever he did couldn’t have been that bad.” Turns out it was bad, he was convicted for owning weaponry and participating in numerous thefts. Maybe the romanticization of “bad boys” in media contributes to this. We often watch movies that convince us that no matter how horrible a person is, if they’re attractive, they can change. Definitely an interesting topic! Maybe try to include studies and scientific facts about the subject.